Former President Donald Trump was indicted for an unprecedented third time on August 1, adding another set of serious federal charges to the mounting legal issues he faces.

Trump was indicted as part of the Department of Justice’s criminal investigation, led by special counsel Jack Smith, into the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. The indictment marks the second time Trump has faced federal charges, and he remains the only president to have been federally indicted.

The indictment is the product of a months-long investigation in which Smith’s team questioned several high-profile members of Trump’s circle, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former White House communications director Hope Hicks. It follows the House January 6th committee’s investigation last year, which concluded that Trump incited the insurrection and conspired to defraud the US government, referring him and other associates to the DOJ for prosecution.

Trump seemed to know the indictment was coming. He posted August 1 on TruthSocial that Smith “will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your Favorite President, me,” and previously posted on the platform that he’d received what’s known as a target letter from Smith. He wrote, “They have now effectively indicted me three times,” and called the investigation a “WITCH HUNT” as well as “POLITICAL WEAPONIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT” in that earlier, July 18 post.

  • cmbabul@lemmy.world
    4·
    1 year ago

    This is just the beginning of a lot of shit, the next 18 months are going to be bat shit crazy

    • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, and I’m not sure people are really taking it seriously enough. A lot of shit can and potentially will go sideways as it becomes increasingly clear that there is no legal escape for Donald Trump, and many of his co-conspirators. I think more violence is almost a guarantee, and that is just the sad reality.

      • cmbabul@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        I agree with you, but you gotta enjoy the wins where you can. There was almost zero chance for this to end without some sort of violence to begin with, there are multiple large groups of crazies in this country that refuse or will refuse to have any part in the direction the world is going to go in the next decade, to the point of denying observable reality, and they are going to get violent as their worldview crumbles around them